The Fragile Heart
by Mitsu Hail
Summary: They say to live and let die, but how can I? I put up with their comments and construstive-critisim. I'm tired of it! No more 'your hairs not straight enough','you don't wear enough make up','you're too fat'. How can anyone live with that? Well, they want to see 'me' fine they'll get 'me'...
1. Chapter 1

They say to live and let die, but how can I? I put up with their comments and construstive- critisim. I'm tired of it! No more 'your hairs not straight enough','you don't wear enough make up','you're too fat'. How can anyone live with that? Well, they want to see 'me' fine they'll get 'me'...

The boys were on their way to the bar to have some fun, when they came across a crowd in the middle of the street, " I wonder what that is," Naruto said, " Then let's check it out," Kiba called to them from the edge of the growing crowd. They pushed their way through to see what was going on. What they saw shocked them, there was a jonin ninja on the ground with a bleeding lip and a girl in a purple dress standing in a offensive pose. The girls hair was in a high pony and it hung in her face. What was more shocking was the fact that the girls hand was dripping from the mans blood," I told you NOT to touch me," she said with a snide in her voice. The man looked just as shocked as the people gathered, "I am NOT your bitch, don't touch me as if you OWN me! I'm tired of your harassment and if you touch me again or even look my way-" "You won't even have time to regret it."

The girl spun around to see six men step from the crowd and gather around her. kiba stepped up and grabbed the shinobi's collar and leaned into him, " don't go around harassing women in this town, esspecialy when I'm around, you hear? Or you will have to live the rest of your life without any pleasure. Ever." Kiba smiled sadisticly, "I can make sure of that," Naruto said from behind Kiba, the rest of the guys nodded. The jonin nodded franticly and took off as soon as he was released.

"You over-did it, Kiba," Shino told him.  
"I did NOT." Kiba whinned, "Yeah you did," Kiba waved him off and turned to the girl, " You ok?" Her head was turned down and she looked like she was crying. "Hey, he didn't hurt you did he?" She shook her head, Kiba reached out to her, but she just slapped his hand away, "You didn't have to butt in, Mutt!" She yelled at him, her eyes met his and he blinked.

"Ino?"

0.o * * *

"Owww... She didn't have to hit me..." Kiba rubbed his cheek. "Well, you did butt into her fight-" "So did you guys! She didn't slap you guys!" The people around the table laughed at his pain, "Gee, glad to know I have such great friends, Damn, she has a hard hit." He rubbed his cheek some more as the others sat around the table.

Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Sasuke, Shino, Choji, Lee, and Kiba. Along with their respective girlfriends, Hinata, Temari, Tenten, Sakura, and the rest are single at the moment (well, Shino is with Hana, Kiba's older sister, but he doesn't know about them yet. And Choji hasn't found the right girl yet,Kiba is inbetween, and Lee decided to give up on Sakura after thousands of defeats by Sasuke.)

"Hey, were's Ino?" Sakura asked, the boys laughed and gestered for her to ask Kiba. He scowled, which only made them laugh harder, "She hit me after saving her ass and took off."

He shrugged and downed his drink, then stood and raised a glass, "A toast, to Naruto," "Stop trying to change the subject," Hinata giggled, "We're here for him anyways so why not a toast? Anyway, the-number-one-knuckle-head-ninja-of-the-leaf finally got his dream, to the Hokage!" They all cheered and clanked glasses.

There was a loud crash at the door and they all turned, the scent hit him first. Those flowers, Ino. "She's here," Kiba stood up with his drink to get another chair. They all watched as the crowd parted and let a tall women clad in a black leather mini skirt, a strip of fabric the barely covered her breasts, a jacket with ripped sleaves, and boots that showed off her long legs. Her hair was done up with half of it in a side pony and the bottom half hanging to the middle of her thigh.

The blonde locks were tipped with an almost blood-red. The chains that hung from her boots and neck jingled as she walked toward them.

Kiba's glass fell from his hand and smashed on the ground as his knees went weak. "What the hell?" Sakura asked, " I thought you said Ino was here?" She scuffed at Kiba, "Great to know that you know me just enough to NOT recongize me." Ino stood behind the startled Sakura.

"Ino? That was you? What happened?" Everyone was staring at her, "Yeah, nice to see you too." She rolled her eyes and stole Naruto's drink, popping it back she kicked her feet up on the table and sat in Kiba's vacated seat.

They all stared at the girl in front of them, this wasn't the happy girl, that didn't let anythng get her down. This one was solem and grouchy, "what happened to you Ino?" Sakura asked concerned, Ino promptly ignored her.  
"You can stop staring, Mutt." She said without looking. Kiba shook his head and grabbed another chair. They sat in silence for ten minutes. "Ugh! This is boring. Come on dog-boy." Ino grabbed Kiba's arm and dragged him to the dance floor.

She started moving to the beat and Kiba reacted on instinct, moving with her. "Why are you dressed like that?" He whispered, she glared up at him, " None of your buisness," she started to dance away, but he grabbed her at the waist and pinned her to him. She tried to pull away, but he only gripped tighter. "Tell me." His voice was final, she looked away. Kiba huffed and forced her head back to face him.

"You need to stop being a bitch and tell me what's wrong." She glared at him, not talking.

"Fine, don't tell me, I'll find out by myself." He moved away and she grabbed his sleave, "You going to tell me?"

She shook her head," If you're going to ask Sikamaru and Choji, don't bother, they don't know me well enough to figure it out. Not even Shikamaru. If I wouldn't tell them why would I tell you?"

Kiba jerked his arm away and stalked toward the table to grabved his stuff before storming out of the club.

"What's wrong with him?" Tenten asked Ino when she got back to them. "How would I know? I'm not his owner." They sat in silence for the rest of the night. 


	2. Chapter 2

It's been three weeks since Ino changed her "style" and every few days it's been a new style. Punk, rock, emo, princess, slob... and so on. Like she's trying to find herself...

She and Sakura were walking down the street and Sakura was rambling on and on. Ino was nodding and yeahing,but not really paying any attention, "Sakura," Sakura looked up with her mouth wide open, about to continue talking, " there's something I've been meaning to tell you," Sakura's eyes widened and she leaned in, listedning intently. Ino leaned close to her and said ,"Shut up. You're anoying." Ino turned back to stare at the sky as Sakura's mouth dropped.

She was going to say something when Sasuke walked up with a hoard of girls on his tail. He looked paniked, who'd a thought that Uchiha Sasuke can bring down full squads of ANBUs, but he can't handle a bunch of girls. Ino sighed and stared blankly as he approached, "What do you want?"

Sasuke looked around wildly, then grabed Sakura and kissed her right then and there. The crowd of girls stared at them while Ino leaned against a post, then with defeated looks they slumped off.

Ino laughed as the sulked off causing them to turn to her as a unit. Her eyes blank and a twisted smirk on her face she faced them, "Why do you even like him?" She gestured to the Uchiha, "He's not that great,"

Sakura looked at her best freind confused, "You don't like him anymore, Ino?" Ino scuffed, "Of course not, why would I? He has nothing to offer me. I'm over him,

in fact, I never liked him, he was just a pawn. Like everyone else," She turned and started walking away, "Good luck with that loser, Sakura!" She laughed coldly and disapeared.

"She changed..." Sakura said sadly, "No, she's showing her true feelings, for the first time." Sasuke corected. "How can you say that? She is not herself! Look at how she dresses, the way she talks, that isn't her-" She was cut off by Sasuke's glare. "This is her, weather we like it or not,"

Kiba stepped from the shadows as he watched the flower leave. Sasuke was wrong, that much he knew, this wasn't Ino. She wouldn't do these things, not if something wasn't wrong.

He had been watching Ino ever since the night at the bar, tailing her everywhere. "What are you doing?" Kiba turned to see Shikamaru and Choji coming out of the BBQ, "Nothing, you?" Shikamaru shrugged,

"You where watching Ino, weren't you?" Choji spoke up. "So what if I was?" Kiba crossed his arms, "There's nothing wrong with her," Shikamaru told him, " She's just blowing off steam, that's all" Kiba ground his teeth together, 'they don't know me well enough to figure it out.' Inos words rung in his ears as he looked at the people that were suppost to know everything about her.

The rookie nine started to grather around them, Kiba glared at all of them. They all thought that there was nothing wrong with Ino.

Kiba growled "You're all blind, you don't even know her!" Kiba stalked off with his last words ringing in their ears.

Stupid people thinking they know someone when they haven't seen their true feelings. How much more stupid can people be? They don't know her, they only know her act that's all. "DAMN IT!" He screamed to the sky. "Why am I so mad? It's not my problem, it has nothing to do with me!" He threw a rock out into the river he was walking along, " then why can't I get her out of my mind?!"

For the past three weeks he could only think about Ino and how she looked that night. With her golden hair framed in a firery red, her blue eyes shining in the low lights, her legs that went on for miles, and the chains that made the barest niose at the alightest movement. They would be perfect to...

Kiba shook his head to clear it of those thoughts, but who could blame him when she wore so small of clothing? He sat down at the ricers edge and stared at his reflection. "What is wrong with me?"

"You mean besides you smell like a dog?" Kiba jumped up, startled at the sudden voice. He misjudged his footingf and ended up in the river, "Damn it!" Laughter folowed his curse, he looked up to see Ino bent over laughing. "Yeah yeah, very funny," he said sarcasticly, though he was happy to see her smiling.

She glanced up at him and he blushed looking away, the way she was bent over gave him a perfect veiw down her shirt. Picking himself up out of the water he made for shore. * * *  
When he got there he took off his shirt and tossed it on the ground. This gave Ino a perfect view of how musculer he really was, (and man was he ripped,*drool*) She stared at him as he took off his netting undershirt and shoes. When he got to his pants she was blushing.

He glanced up and smirked, oh no he caught me! She quickly put on a blank face and stared into his eyes. "Can I help you?" She asked emotionlessly, his grin widened and she took a step back. Kiba had no idea what came over him as he left his pants unbuttoned and walked toward her. She looked so pretty, she was dressed in a simple white tee that was ripped in a diagnal from the bottom of her breast line on the right to her left hip, her pants were loose and decorated with a fire pattern, her hair was down and still tipped in red.

A red that happened to match his tribal marks.

Ino was backed up into a tree as Kiba put his hands on either side of her face, blocking off her escape. Ino was shaking, she never saw Kiba with this fierce of an expression before. His eyes were narrowed, his hands clenched, and he was close, too close. "Wha-what?" Ino looked away nervously,

"look at me,"

Kiba took her chin in his hand, pushing her head back to him. Kiba leaned in more, "What is it about you?" Ino just stared at him, "What do you mean?" "You inferiate me to no end, yet you are stuck in my head, always."

He was so close, everytime she took a breath it pushed her closer to him. "W-what do you think you are doing, Kiba?" He watched her shake as if something ran through her. Probably the same thing that was going through him. He wanted so badly to lean forward those last few inches and taste her, but he couldn't, it wasn't important at the moment.

She was all that mattered. "Ino, tell me what happened," his eyes bore into hers, making her want to tell him, but she wouldn't, she couldn't, not to anyone, "Why should I tell you? You wouldn't understand." She almost yelled at him, "Let me help. What wouldn't I understand?"

"Go away! Leave me alone! You don't know anything!" She almost let her tears fall, 'No, that would be weakness' and she wasn't about to let anyone see her as weak. "You don't understand!"

"Try me!" He yelled back.

They both glared at each other, Kiba could see the tears she was trying to hold back. Her gaze, though shining, held determination. His eyes softened and he leaned his on her shoulder. Her breath hitched. Kiba took a shaky breath before he whispered, "I just want to help," he nuzzled her neck, taking big whiffs of her scent, "This isn't you, Ino,"

There was silence, eiry silence.

"You want to help?" He lifted his head slightly, she placed her hands on his chest. They clenched once, then he was shoved backwards. "How can you help?" She was shaking again, her head cast down.

Throwing her head back, she screamed, "You don't know me, or how I feel! You couldn't understand at all!" Rivers washed down her face, "At least YOU still have your family!" She took off running, deeper into the forest.

As soon as she was gone, Kiba fell backwards onto the ground. "Why am I such an idiot?" Ino's mom had died when she was little, but she had never shed a single tear. Her dad had raised her by himself, taking off from missions to be with her, barely scraping by. The whole village knew about them, they all helped out when she was little. How could he have forgotten?

And now even her dad was gone, she had no one, not even the sympathy of the village. She was all alone in that house full of memories, she had finally colapsed in on herself, shutting everyone else out. Kiba sat back and stared at the sky. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing, "I really am stupid,"

Thanks for waiting! This is a dramatic chapter, hope you enjoy. So it's based after the great ninja war, andi like Neji so he's not dieing :-P . I'm still mad at them for killing him off :-\ that should not have happened! Anyway reivew please! I promise to answer all of them! ;-) 


	3. broken

She ran, ran from Kiba, ran from the situation, ran from herself.

All she could think about were the happy memories with her family, they sufficated her. She couldn't breathe, her vision blurred and pain clenched her heart.

That was all that they brought anymore, never happiness, only pain.

Only misery.

The branches tore at her clothes as she raced through the trees, 'Stupid MUTT! He just had took keep at it didn't he? I hate him!' No one carred about her anyway, not even her 'best' friends.

Sakura was too busy fighting off Sasuke's fanclub just to be with him, Shika was busy being yelled at by Temari, even Choji was too busy for her. No one cared about what she did anymore, so why should she?

"This isn't you..." she heard his soft voice in her head, it made her slow in her steps. Until she came to a stop. It almost sounded as if he cared about what happened to her. "No, he couldn't." 'He noticed something was wrong when no one else did,' "He doesn't know me," 'He knows you more than the others do,'

The voice in her head was compelling her to go back, to confide in him, but her pride wouldn't let her. "Why would he care? Why would he...?"

She clutched her chest, there was a sharp, burning pain in her heart, as if someone was dragging a knife across it before plunging it in. Then twisting before ripping it out and starting again.

She started walking again, only to stumble to her hands and knees. She couldn't do it anymore, it was too much, the stares, the whispers, the taunts behind her back, the hate, the lies. She couldn't live with it any more.

There was a war waging and she was the battle-field, rivers flowing freely from he eyes, she let all her grief out. Thunder tore through the darkness as she screamed at the sky all her pain and agoney... As the rain fell two hearts followed close behind...

Kiba looked out his window with a heavy heart, how couldhe skrew things up that badly? 'Oh, right, because I'm an idiot.' He thought angrily, the rain outside matched his mood perfectly, dreary and miserable. Ready to explode at any moment.

Sighing he layed back on his bed staring at the cieling, but only seeing Ino's tears. He closed his eyes, still the image wouldn't go away.

"Damn it!" He threw his pillow at the door, successfully hitting his sister, Hana, in the face, in his frustration.

Hana blinked at him ,"That's one heck of a welcome,"

"Sorry, sis," Kiba mumbled looking away, huffing. Hana closed the door behind her before comeing to sit on the bed beside him, "What's wrong?" Kiba just stared out the window, determined not to tell her, it was none of her business anyway.

Smiling softly she nudgged him, "Come on you can tell me," Kiba glanced at her then looked away,"It's nothing," they sat in silence.

"Fine, don't tell me," She got up to leave when she heard kiba whisper, " Have you ever kept a secret..." She turned back to him, "What are you talking about? Of course I have," Kiba's eyes met hers and she shivered.

His eyes were almost soulless, but they held pain and dispair and desperation, "Even from Shino?"

Hana did a double take at what was going on in front of her, Kiba never looked so helpless and lost, "What happened Kiba?" He stared at her, then leaned against his head-board, "Just answer the question, have you ever kept a secret from Shino?"

Hana was about to say 'no' when she replayed his words, " What do you mean, 'Shino'?" She raised her eyebrows. Turning to her, he smiled slightly, " I smelled him on you a while ago," looking into her eyes, he smiled more, " Plus, he forgot to wash-up one time, it was pretty clear who he was with."

Hana sighed , " I should have known I couldn't keep it from you" they smiled at each other.

Until a clap of thunder sounded and lightning streaked his room with harsh light. Kiba's face fell, returning to his sour mood. Silence followed, " Yes," Kiba cocked his head, silently asking 'what?' "Yes, I have kept a secret from him." His eyes widened, " Why? Did he ever try to find out? What did you do? How did he take it?"

"Wow, slow down, Kiba, what is this all about?" He quickly turned away, not wanting to tell her, "Can't you just answer my question?" He looked ashamed, "Please?" Smiling at him, she went and sat on his bed, "If it makes you feel beter, sure."

They spent the next hour talking about how Hana kept her true feelings locked inside as to not bother anyone. How she was afraid that the roumors would drive Shino away too. How he only brought it up once, then respected her enough to back off. Though he was still there if she wanted to talk, he stood by her as support, but he never pushed her. That had brought them closer together amd she finally told him her fears, which promptly told her that he would never listen things like roumors with no proof.

"I hope that helped," Hana stated, stretching. "Yeah, I think it did, sis," Kiba smiled at her, "Thanks," She smiled, showing off her fangs, and ruffled his hair, "Good, I'm glad.

So , now onto the original reason for coming up here," Kiba got up, off his bed, and yawned, "Yeah?" "We need more supplise for the dogs and first-aid kits." Kiba sighed, "So, why you telling me." "Mom wants you to go get them," he groaned, "Fine, come on, Akumaru,"

At the hospital he was trying to explain to a nurse what he needed, but he was ignored, "Damn it! I just needed more bandages!" "Kiba?" He spun around to see Sakura standing in her lab coat and a clip-board in hand.

'Oh, thank god!'He smiled at her weakly, "Hey, Sakura, how you been?" She looked at him suspisiously, "What are you doing here?" He lazily shruged his shoulder, "My mom told me to pick up some supplise, got any?"

She waved him into a small room, once they were in she shut the door and atarted packing him a bag, "So... have... you ... heard from Ino?" She asked shyly, he shrugged again, "No, why?" "Well, it's just, she is usually here right about now," Kiba started getting a sick feeling in his stomache, "And I've been trying to call her all day, she hasn't answered," the feeling increased, "Uh, she has been acting strange lately," he tried to force the feeling away by talking.

Sakura shook her head, "I think she's just showing her true colors," Kiba's stomache dropped like a rock in air, " That's all, here." Sakura handed the bag to him, "That should be it," " Did you try her house?" Sakura blinked, "Um... yeah, she wasn't there or the shop,"

Kiba's face was distorted in pain, his fingers clenched his abdomen and chest, he felt like he was being squeazed to death, from the inside out. "Hey, you ok?" Sakura reached her hand out to feel his forhead, only to snatch it away as though it burned her, "I think you should lay down, Kiba,"

He felt cold, so cold, as if he were in a blizard. A storm washed through his head, 'Ino wasn't answering, she didn't show up for work, was she...? No, she could be with Shikamaru, or Choji. Yeah... '

"What are you two doing?" Kiba whipped around to see Shikamaru, 'she could be with...' "Hey, what's going on?" 'Not him either... that means...'

"Where's Ino?" Kiba stared franticly at Shika, who shrugged, "How should I know something that troublesome?" Kiba shot out of the room like a bat out of hell.

He had left the river an hour after the insident with Ino, an hour to get home, thirty minutes in his room, an hour with his sister, fifteen mins. at the hospital, Ino had been missing for over three hours! She couldn't still be in the woods could she? Not in this storm.

This was all his fault! If only he kept his mouth shut!

So sad! I can't believe I wrote it! And at one o'clock in the morning too! Glad that's over. ;-) 


	4. Rain

"What's his problem?" Choji asked, Sakura jsut stared after Kiba. She had been the only one to see the pain and worry on his face, "I don't know," then she looked on the floor and sighed, he had left the bag she packed him.

Picking it up, she walked out of the room, she was off now anyways. So, she could bring it to the Inuzuka compound, on her way to the ramen shop to meet everyone.

Kiba dashed through the trees as the feelings racing through his body gathered in his stomache, making him want to barf. All he could think about was that Ino was out in this storm, in the woods, cold, tired, maybe hurt. Or. Worse... Shaking his head he focused on finding her instead of the images going through his mind. The horrable-worst-case-scenario images... Oh, God, he really was going to barf!

Sakura dashed under the shelter of the portch, letting down her make-shift chakra umbrella, before knocking. Seconds latter it opened to show Hana on the other side, "Oh, hi, Sakura. Come in," She stepped back to let the girl enter. After she was inside Sakura handed Hana the bag, "Here," Suprised, Hana took it, "Thank you, but how did you know we needed these?" Sakura shook her head,"I didnt , I ran into Kiba at the hospital, we were talking about Ino when Shikamaru and Choji wlaked in and he took off-"

Haa had stopped listening, she was back in the room with Kiba, talking, "So, that's what that was about..." "What did you say?" Hana looked at her, "Oh, nothing. Would you like some tea?" She started moving toward the kitchen. "nNo, I need to be going. I'm meeting the guys at Ichiraku's. I'll see you later."

With that she left, leaving Hana to ponder what her litle brother had gotten himself into.

"So cold..." Ino was huddled under a make-shift shelter as the rain came pouring down. She would have gone home, if it wasn't for thisnlitle thing called 'Pride', and the fact that she was at the bottom of a hill, with no way around it. And it was too big to jump over in one bound, she would need to land at least twice. But, no, the ground had not one single foot purchase, all mud. She didn't know how it happened, it just did. One minute she was running, then she was falling to the bottom of this pit. She had scrapped her hands and feet and her leg had a gash on it, though she stopped the bleeding with her medical ninjutsu, it still hurt like hell.

And the worst part of all of this was that it was filling up with mud andit was getting closer and closer to her rock, "I have got to get out of here," she stood and braved the steep slope of mud to climb a good two feet before her foot slipped. Hissing she fell to the mud cover ground, she landed on her injured leg. It scraped against a sharp rock, cutting it open again and letting the mud mix with her blood. She couldn't even move anymore, weiriness took hold of her as bloodloss made her vision blurr. Falling backwards, she sprawled in the mud, looking up. Just before she closed her eyes she saw a figure making its way down the hill to her, his face blacked out. She heard her name called before she slipped into the forgiving darkness.

Sorry it's short, but I would have finished it in this one if I didn't stop. Hope you enjoy the cliff-hanger! Review please!


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